CONCORD -- The trend of gains in the New Hampshire housing market continued in October, with the largest single-month median price increase in nearly five years, according to data released this week by the New Hampshire Association of REALTORS (NHAR).

Also spiking in October was the number of homes sold in New Hampshire, lending further evidence to the notion that the state’s housing market has turned a corner toward recovery.

“This is now clearly a trend,” said NHAR President John Rice, citing the fact that every month in 2012 has witnessed an increase in unit sales compared to the same month in 2011. “We anticipated that increased numbers of sales would eventually lead to upward pressure on prices, and that’s what we’re seeing now.”

Rice, a 40-year veteran of the real estate industry and an agent with Tate & Foss Sotheby’s International Realty in Rye, stopped short of predicting that New Hampshire has seen its “price bottom,” but he did acknowledge that possibility.

“It’s not our business to predict the future,” he said, “but on the other hand, it wouldn’t surprise me if we look back in two years and this was the turning point on median price.”

The median sales price of single family residences sold in October was $212,000, an 11.6 percent increase over the $190,000 median price in October 2011. And monthly unit sales continued to surge, marking the 10th consecutive month of increases – 1,191 sales in October 2012, compared to 938 in October 2011, a 27 percent jump.

Year to date, residential unit sales have increased by 20.1 percent in 2012, while median price for the first 10 months is at $202,500, compared with $205,000 after the first nine months of last year.

“We’re about 1 percent behind where prices were at this time last year,” Rice said. “Considering that prices were 5 percent behind after the first quarter, we’ve definitely seen a comeback.”

Locally, five of the 10 counties saw median price increases in October, including a 19 percent jump in Rockingham County. Each of the 10 counties saw unit sales increases in October, and all 10 have increased by at least 16 percent year to date in 2012.